1911 Fans

First off, the benefits of any guide rod are questionable, other than adding a little weight to the muzzle. Some have complained about two-piece guide rods coming apart during firing, though supposedly a piece of teflon plumbing tape on the screw threads solves this. My gun came with a two-piece guide rod. I replaced it with a normal spring guide and plug.
 
Over on the 1911 Forum some folks have actually gotten into pi$$ing contests over guide rods. The conventional wisdom is either people like the full length ones or they don't based on personal bias. Me, I always prefered the original GI configuration (one piece short style). Note that there are also one piece full length guide rods as well, if that's what you're getting at. Personally, for a full-length I prefer the one piece so that I don't have to worry about it coming unscrewed. The only really big advantage to a full length is that it prevents the recoil spring from wanting to kink, thus allowing it to last longer before needing replacement. However, a person who values his guns will replace the spring every 3,000 rounds or so anyway, which makes it a moot point.

Again, it's personal preference so there really isn't much to say pro or con.
 
My Springfield came with a 2 part guide rod. Not a bad deal. But I was never 100% tickeled with it. I swapped it out for a regular guiderod and plug. I traded another fellow who liked the long 2 part guide rod. We tried it in his gun and believe it or not, his groups improved by 50%. I have NO explanation as to why that happened. Because my groups didn't chance when I switched my gun. I don't get it. I'm still wondering about how that happened and why. He simply started shooting BETTER? The guide rod allowed the barrel to return to the same point... the plug held the bushing better... the extra weight at the muzzle balenced better... A combo of all the above? I don't know.

It's a personal thing I guess. Depends on the shooter and the gun.
 
Uhhmmm, thanks a lot

but:

A. I don't have any preference - as I said, a noob to 1911s
B. IS ONE EASIER TO RE-ASSEMBLE THAN ANOTHER? - that's the main reason this other person had recommended a 1-piece.
C. Now I'm really confused - what are ALL of my options?
D. Will all of these work with the longslide, 6" version, or does it matter?
E. What types/brands etc. does one recommend, if any?
F. What is a "plug"

Thanks - Sigh.... big can of worms -didn't realize...Reeeaaly need to get back to basics, if anyone is willing to explain this for me. If you are, I would be much obliged.
 
I think you are stuck with a two piece guide rod for the Longslide. You just need to develop a method to assemble the gun that does not require two people.

As for magazines, the Chip McCormick (sp?) Shooting Star stainless eight round mags I have been using have given me no trouble. Some people have had bad experiences with them, but they function flawlessly for me. The seven rounders that came with the gun were horrible. I sanded off the little bump on the followers, which made them better, but not 100% reliable.

One thing I did to my Longslide was to lightly polish the feed ramp on the frame. It had a lot of machine marks running sideways to the direction of cartridge travel. I could not completely remove the marks, as they were deep, but I smoothed them up quite a bit.
 
Thanks, AR10 - you've been very helpful. I (finally) understand that "polish" means "remove material", not "make shiny", as the name implies. Doh - what a noob..... :)
 
Actually, polish means remove a tiny bit of material and make shiny. A felt wheel chucked into a cordless drill and some rubbing compound or some jeweler's rouge. You don't want to file away any material, just polish it, which will remove some material in the process.

The plug you asked about is a spring plug that usually comes on a 1911, but not on your's. You have a guide rod instead. If you had a standard 1911 with a guide rod (like a Springfield loaded), you could remove the guide rod and install the spring plug instead. I did that on my full size loaded model. To do that, you need a gun that has a barrel collet. Your Longslide has a bull barrel, which means it does not have a barrel collet.

The Longslide has a two piece guide rod for a very good reason. A one piece guide rod will not install from the backend, which is how you have to assemble the longslide. If the gun had a barrel collet, you would install the spring and guide rod (or spring and spring plug) last, by turning the collet and sliding the parts into the assembled gun. With a bull barrel, the barrel is bigger around and takes up the space in the slide that the collet would occupy, so an alternate method of installing the spring is used.

This alternate method just happens to be harder.;)

So did you get in on the thread where Triton is giving away 450SMC???? It's made for your gun! It's still available if you missed the thread. they're giving away 20rd. boxes to the first fifty guys who email them through the thread they've got going here.
 
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